Weather broadcast company AccuWeather is seeing a big response to its recent inclusion of 360-degree videos for breaking weather news, with some garnering millions of views online.
Since outfitting all of its storm chasers with 360-degree cameras earlier this year, the company’s captured thunderstorms, blizzards and even a tornado in 360 video. Footage of an EF-2 tornado in Wray, Colo. in May was shot by meteorologist Reed Timmer, with the clip gaining more than 16 million views combined on YouTube and social media platforms.
AccuWeather is crediting the introduction of 360 weather videos for a 400% jump in average monthly video views across its digital properties, including online, mobile, apps and OTT.
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"Our audience relies on AccuWeather as the leading source of innovative weather video, evidenced by record-setting growth in our video engagement," said Trish Mikita, VP of digital media strategy for AccuWeather, in a statement. "AccuWeather's industry-leading 360 videos bring our audience closer to breaking weather news, and our users have responded by making them some of AccuWeather's most popular videos across digital platforms."
AccuWeather's 360 videos bring the company’s total number of original videos to more than 500 a day.
